A bee-busy, massive California lilac bush in Santa Monica, the floppy, Dr. Seuss-like dune sedge in La Canada Flintridge, the mountain-inspired mix of California buckwheat, sagebrush and black sage in Pasadena: It’s the riot of colors and diversity of plants that leaves a lasting impression from the Theodore Payne Foundation Native Garden Tour.

The Sun Valley-based nonprofit foundation, a standard-bearer when it comes to highlighting and promoting the ecological benefits of sustainable landscaping, heads up one of the most popular Southern California garden tours on the spring schedule. The recent lineup of 29 sites from the foothills to the coast represent what homeowners can do to establish, cultivate and maintain native plant gardens.

One of the many benefits of a native garden is that butterflies and other wildlife are naturally attracted to the familiar plants.
CREDIT: Theodore Payne Foundation

A massive California lilac bush at a restored, century-old home in Santa Monica that was a stop on the Theodore Payne Foundation tour was abuzz with bees.
CREDIT: Kathie Bozanich

Sound

The gallery will resume inseconds

At this La Canada Flintridge home that was part of the Theodore Payne Foundation tour, dune sedge and deer grass are a memorable, low-water and low-maintenance alternative to typical lawns. CREDIT: Kathie Bozanich

On this Earth Day and beyond, the gardens are a reminder that going with native plants doesn’t mean boring or staid yards with a couple of cacti and gravel paths. And even though California was declared officially free of drought in March after more than seven years, that doesn’t change any of the benefits and long-term impacts of an eco-friendly garden.

According to the Theodore Payne Foundation, California native gardens use, on average, one-seventh of the water of most non-natives; attract fewer pests and thus reduce pesticide use; reduce your carbon footprint by requiring no fertilizers; require little maintenance; add beauty with their varied, colorful and aromatic textures and colors; and attract wildlife, birds and beneficial insects. The latter incorporates this year’s Earth Day theme of protecting threatened species like bees and other “good insects.”

“The drought inspired a lot of people to make this change [to sustainable landscaping] – and driving through neighborhoods today you see some beautiful results,” Metropolitan Water District General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger said recently. “But climate change and our growing economy means we all need to increase our long-term water efficiency, regardless of the weather.”

Kightlinger made the comments as the water district announced it would double the rebate, reinstated last year, for those who replace water-chugging turf with more sustainable landscaping to $2 a square foot beginning April 1. Almost all Southern California households in six counties fall within the district and qualify for the immensely popular program, available online at bewaterwise.com. The offer’s first run during the height of the drought in 2014-15 spurred 85,000 applications for turf removal rebates from homes, businesses and public agencies and the removal of 160 million square feet of grass across Southern California.

Of course, rebates aren’t the only or even primary incentive for many to choose to remove their lawns and put in native plant gardens. Bethany Ehlmann, whose Pasadena home was one of the stops on the recent Theodore Payne Foundation tour, says she was inspired by her surroundings while exploring the nearby hills to ditch her lawn several years ago.

“I like the idea of beautiful, native vegetation [and] I wanted to take the beauty I found while hiking back home,” Ehlmann said, so she did some research and ended up at the Theodore Payne Foundation.

“I started with four plants from there,” she said, before eventually removing all the turf from her front and side yards. Today, her 1920s Spanish-mission style home is surrounded by such hiking trail staples as California buckwheat and sagebrush along with Baja fairy duster, island bush poppy and California lilac. In a nice touch, a couple of desert museum Palo Verde trees line her parkway along Palo Verde Street.

Jane Glicksman, whose Spanish colonial revival home in La Canada Flintridge was also on the tour, said her reasons to have native plant landscaping were both pragmatic and aesthetic: “We live in a desert, and I just like the look of it,” she said.

California poppy, desert marigolds and shapely succulents in Glickman’s front yard give way to a more wooded-looking mix of plants in the back. There’s an eye-catching pink-flowering currant just out in a wild fashion along the house. She sources her plants locally, and credits online retailer Las Pilitas Nursery with helping her what she can’t find elsewhere.

At a century-old restored home in Santa Monica, the owners seek to attract more than tour-goers with its mix of plantings: It is a designated wildlife sanctuary and monarch butterfly waystation. Island and Baja bush snapdragons, California poppies, sea thrifts and an impressive six-foot-square California lilac bush work in tandem to attract birds and insects. Mat-like common yarrow spreads across the parkway area as an alternative to grass.

In some cases, however, replacing turf doesn’t mean getting rid of “grass” at all. The front yard of another La Canada Flintridge home on the tour is an expanse of long-stranded dune sedge and deer grass, with a standout blooming manzanita tree near the home’s front door for good measure.

The sedge is an evergreen, low-water alternative to a typical lawn with the added bonus that it “only needs to be cut about twice a year,” said the garden’s designer, Eric Crow, a landscape architect at Tujunga-based FormLA Landscaping.

In the back, container gardens line a patio area that flows into native plant-lined walkways and another sitting area. Rusted-metal fabricated containers include raised beds of vegetables, including an enormous “centerpiece” artichoke plant.

“I think as more native gardens go in, the originality really begins to show,” Crow said. “We are creating native islands that connect with the greater natural environment all around us.”